Nani has confessed that he and his team-mates had to console Cristiano Ronaldo after he missed his penalty in the first leg of Manchester United's Champions League semi-final in Barcelona midweek.
Ronaldo shot wide from the spot in the third minute after Barca defender Gabriel Milito was penalised for a handball in the area, the miss resigning United to a 0-0 draw at Camp Nou.
Nani admits he had to comfort his fellow Portugal international, but insists the United number seven will bounce back stronger than ever.
Winner
“All of us have given him encouragement,†Nani said. “He's been so instrumental for us all season and has won so many games for us.
“He is a born winner and he'll help us beat Barcelona and reach the final. We'll be ready to knock them out at Old Trafford.â€
Red Devils forward Wayne Rooney echoed Nani's sentiments, insisting that a player of Ronaldo's quality will not stay down for long – especially given the form he has been in this season.
“He's an unbelievable player and I'm sure that the penalty miss won't affect him at all,†said Rooney. “He's scored 38 goals this season.
“He's missed a penalty, but it's difficult up front on his own and he did well. His football speaks for itself.
“All the great players have missed penalties so he won't worry about that.â€
Defence, Confidence
Sir Alex Ferguson surprised pundits and fans alike by adopting a defensive approach at Camp Nou on Wednesday night, deploying Rooney and Park Ji-Sung as wide midfielders in an attempt to nullify the threat of Barca's attacking full-backs.
And while Rooney concedes United were far from their usual attacking selves, he believes the system succeeded and that the Red Devils can defeat Barca at Old Trafford to progress to the final in Moscow.
“I thought defensively we played very well,†said the England international. “We maybe never had as many opportunities as we could have had going forward but we knew we had to defend well and we did that.
“We've got a great record at Old Trafford and we are confident of beating anyone there. It will be a different game at Old Trafford, we'll attack more and we'll try to win the game as we know we can do.
“Barcelona are a great passing team, especially at home — so we knew we had to defend well and I think we did that. It's a good result for us.
“It's still close and it can still go either way, we know that. But I've seen teams come to Barcelona and get beat 3-0 or 4-0 so I think 0-0 is a good result.â€
“We knew they have got good attacking players and their full-backs bomb forward so the manager askedme to do a job watching the full-backs and I was happy to do that.â€
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